Candy Making

11/11/12

Since my candy class a few weeks ago, I have been dying to try it out for myself. I finally bought some supplies to make some treats. I wanted to get a head start on perfecting the treats for Christmas. 

Here is a list treats that I made:
- candied popcorn
- chocolate covered Oreos
- peppermint bark
- pretzel sticks wrapped with caramel dipped in chocolate
- chocolate covered almonds
- peanut butter cups

I used light butter popcorn and drizzled chocolate & caramel on top. Sprinkled mini chocolate chips and heath bar pieces. 

I used movie butter popcorn and drizzled chocolate & caramel over the popcorn. Sprinkled christmas colored mini m&m's and heath bar pieces. 

I bought a red centered Oreo (for Christmas) and dipped them into white chocolate and milk chocolate. I used a cookie mold to get the perfectly shaped and smooth finish. 

This is quite simple. I used melted white chocolate and added peppermint crunch that I bought at my favorite candy supply store (Cakewalk). You mix in 1/4 lb of peppermint crunch with 1/2 lb white chocolate and then pour out the mixture on parchment paper. Let it harden (can refrigerate to make it harden faster).

First, I use caramel that is at room temperature. That way you can mold it. I roll a piece into a ball and then make a log out of it. I start at one end and then slowly pulled and wrap it around the pretzel. You want to leave room at the bottom so you can dip it into chocolate. 

Here is how mine looked. I dipped mine in both white and milk chocolate. You can add sprinkles for decoration. 

Homemade chocolate covered almonds. I must warn you...these are to die for and really simple. I used a peanut butter cup mold. You can use any mold or even make a bark with this. I used milk chocolate and added lightly salted almonds to the molds and covered with more chocolate and put in the freezer to set. 

I wanted to make a peanut butter cup for my husband. He loves peanut butter cups and I wanted to try and make some for him. I actually made 2 different kinds. The first one I made, I used real peanut butter and covered with chocolate. This batch was too rich and dense. The 2nd batch, I melted some peanut butter melts to see how it would turn out but continued to be hard like chocolate. The flavor of the peanut butter was better but now I have to figure out how to make the peanut butter creamer and not hard. 

Fall Cake Pops

11/6/12

These cake pops are for my lovely sister. She wanted something that spoke "Fall". She suggested using fall colors such as red, brown and orange so I did. I decided to intermingle marshmallows with cake pops so that her coworkers had a variety to choose from at their team meeting tomorrow. The cake pops are made with chocolate cake. Both the cake pops and marshmallows were dipped in milk chocolate and white chocolate and sprinkled with fall colored sprinkles. 

These cake pops were simple but fun to do. I especially like how easy and beautiful the marshmallows look. I just might have to keep using them more often. :) 

Hello Kitty

11/5/12

I got asked to make Hello Kitty cake pops for a child's birthday. I have made these in the past but like every cake pop order that I get, I treat each and everyone as equally important. 

The client wanted vanilla flavored cake pops so that all the kids could eat them. I used white chocolate chips to use as ears. I dipped the cake pops in white chocolate and decorated each one with a red bow made of tiny red heart sprinkles. I used black confetti sprinkles for the eyes and a yellow confetti sprinkle for the nose. The final touch...I drew the whiskers on each cake pop with an Ameri Color edible pen. 

Hello Kitty's in the making. :)

RED BOWS!

Hiding behind my Hello Kitty cake pop :)

Hello Kitty spotlight 

Hello Kitty army 

November...off to a good start

11/3/12

Today I went to a cupcake decorating class at Cake Walk to learn how to decorate more holiday themed cupcakes. More specifically...CHRISTMAS!!! On top of that, I also went to their candy class as well to learn different tips and tricks. 

At this class, we learned to decorate cupcakes including the following: Santa stuck in the snow, reindeer, ornament, a christmas tree, spaghetti, and a sunflower. 

The candy class was something I couldn't wait to for. I wanted to know everything I could about candy. Here are some of the things that were made. And they all tasted delicious. 

Some of the things that I got to see made included: caramel apples, chocolate/caramel drizzled popcorn, cherry cheesecake bark, peppermint bark, chocolate dipped oreo's, caramel swirled pretzel sticks dipped in chocolate, and our own version of thin mints. 

Halloween

10/31/12

This Halloween, I had the wonderful task of doing 4 dozen cake pops for a co-worker. She left the characters up to me. I was inspired but Bakerella and wanted to try mimicking her Halloween cake pops such as the spiders, eye balls, candy corn, and pumpkins by KC Bakes. 

Eye Balls

Pumpkins

Candy Corn

Halloween colored marshmallows

Spiders crawling all over the cake pops! 

Apart from my cake pop order, I dressed up as a Sailor for Halloween. My wonderful mother-in-law made my costume as she had done for the last couple of years. I look forward to her making my costume every year because I love that she can tailor it to fit me and what I want. 

Sailor 

Cupcake Class

10/20/12

Today my sister and I went to a cupcake class at CakeWalk in Redlands.  We were told to bring 6 cupcakes, buttercream, tips, and more. I was excited about the class because my sister was coming with me and bonding is always great. With the holidays around the corner,  we made Halloween and holiday cupcakes. 

The class was small which I liked because that meant "one on one" time with our instructor. The instructor is the CakeWalk shop owner's mom and she was so wonderfully sweet. She taught my sister and I different pipping skills, gave us tips on our cupcakes, and more. It was everything I wanted in a class. 

Here are my creations:

Monster

Poinsettia 

Skeleton

Cherry Pie 

Owl

Mummy

Cupcakes Get-Together

10/19/12

Today I made 2 batches of cupcakes (strawberry and yellow) for a get-together, class, and for home. I wanted a variety for the get-together so I thought I'd use up my leftover buttercream & chocolate buttercream frosting that I had. I figured the strawberry and yellow cake would work well with the frostings. 

I piped the buttercream in a swirl motion with a star tip on all cupcakes, then decorated. Here is what I used to decorate the cupcakes: 

Disco Dust-Ruby Red and Clear Gold

Sparkling Sugar-Hot Pink

This is what they looked like once I finished. (I chose 2 flavors because I need 12 for my cupcake class the next day (6 for me and 6 for my sister); I saved 24 for the get-together and whatever was left...for the house. Yum! 

Used Disco Dust-Clear Gold only

Used Disco Dust-Ruby Red and Hot Pink Sugar Sprinkles